LONDON, June 9 (Xinhua) -- London's Tower Bridge is to be transformed into a gigantic outdoor art gallery to celebrate the European Football Championship, the city's mayor Sadiq Khan announced Wednesday.
London will host eight matches during the tournament, including both semifinals and the final.
As well as the iconic bridge across the River Thames, four other across the British capital will be pasted with more than 3,000 black and white portrait photographs in celebration of the competition.
The art project by French artist JR will cover pavement, roads and buildings across London with his epic black and white portraits. The gallery across Tower Bridge will be longer than two football pitches.
City Hall said the exhibition, called Inside Out, will be the capital's cultural celebration of football and its ability to bring people together.
More than 3,000 black and white photographs of Londoners' faces will be exhibited at five locations across the city as part of a large-scale public installation by JR, capturing the stories of Londoners during the tournament and celebrating the people that make up the British capital, said a City Hall spokesperson.
"Five locations across our capital will be transformed into spectacular open exhibition spaces in a celebration of our diversity and the incredible efforts of our community heroes over the last year. It will show the power of football to bring people together and will be another great reason for Londoners and visitors to safely enjoy our capital this summer," Khan said.
"The Inside Out Project will allow any person in London to express a visual statement with their portrait. It's the first photobooth truck activation since a long time, at a beautiful moment of reopening - bringing people together again and building bridges through art," JR said. Enditem